Meet Einstein

I have a son, let's call him Einstein, who is brilliant. And I don't mean in the way of "all children are gifted" or "all parents say their child is bright" type of smart. 

He is brilliant. 

When I say he learned to read at 3, I don't mean he could recite Hop on Pop because I had read it to him fifty times. He would pick up newspapers and start reading the articles aloud, and read my parenting books to know why I was doing what I was doing. 

When I say he is good at math, I don't mean that he could do simple addition at 4 or 5 years old. I mean that at 5 years old, he was starting early algebra and had already had known the multiplication tables for a year. 

When I say he remembers things well, I mean that he would repeat entire conversations I had had with him years before word for word. He will play chess with me... WITHOUT a chess board in front of him. He just calls out a piece to a grid coordinate. 

I remember at his 2 year checkup tentatively asking the pediatrician if my son was gifted. Because by the time he turned 2 years old, he wasn't just singing songs and speaking in full sentences. 

He was using vocabulary like "chivalrous" and asking questions like "why do balloons stay up today and fall tomorrow?" 

For a long time, no one wanted to hear that my kid was "smart". They mostly didn't believe me, and a few felt like I was "showing off" if I spoke about being proud of my son, even though it was okay for others to talk about their child's athletic abilities. 

So I kept quiet. When people would tell me how bright my son was, I would revert to the generic, "Thank you, he is a sharp kid!" and not go into details.

But being gifted isn't just about being really smart. Another part is the emotional volatility. 

Because Einstein is dramatic!!! Ever since he was a baby, he never cried, he SCREAMED. He would go from sleeping to 100mph in about 2 seconds.  

Everything set him off. If his sock got a drop of water on it, his world fell apart. If a glob of jelly fell off his sandwich while he bit it, it was World War 3. 

To cope with his dramatic antics, I started writing "Why is Einstein Crying" with different "episodes" written for his various meltdowns. It helped keep me sane. 

When he is interested in a topic, he becomes obsessed overnight. One of his fixations was Gaston, and we memorized every line spoken or sung that he has in the Disney move and the Broadway play. Einstein researched hunting in France because of Gaston. When he is interested, he is hooked. 

The best piece of advice I ever got for parenting Einstein was "Hold on tight, because this one is going to take you for a wild ride!"